'Walking Dead' Premiere: Design of the Undead

10/11/2013 3:03PM

When AMC's hit "Walking Dead" returns, producers are promising more zombie decomposition. Executive producer and special effects designer Greg Nicotero discusses how this season's zombies could be the ickiest yet.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... use force will move I knew new tunes wound ... and ... so was the key ... the eighty s just so naturally ... welcome to Digits I'm done during the AMC's walking dead meat TV history last season by becoming the first basic cable series ever to be the broadcast competition and a key rating ... the hit series returns this Sunday and walking the producers are promising not just more zombies of more zombie the composition ... torn is now to discuss the design of the undead as executive producer Greg Fitzgerald ... has won two Emmys the prosthetics special thanks to design the show ... he also directors of the season for me ... welcome back thinks it's ... so over the course of three years three seasons we seem ... of zombies otherwise known as Walker's or bikers ... in almost every rational state of decay yes ... um ... how these Audi's the changes ... well you know ... I always looked at a lake that if you put a piece of fruit out in the sun for two days ... it still rocked ... so we we sort of look at it in that regard walkers are always out there they're always ... being hit by the elements the sun and ... rain so ... we we try to make them look more leathery skin peels away from the T ... P I's get more cloudy so every season ... we exaggerate and accentuate the percentage that make them look for more D ... what's I were talking about roughly between the two sided pyramid that what they are now in the world the show um I think we're all or a gorilla the year ... but when the Saudis have to get this cleaned up ... season one season to pretence that he has ... the tools the week ... the season to season three was seven months because Lori was ... like the beginning of season three ... we were saying that it's about another six or seven months ... so as you were up as zombies evolve your methods have been involved with the new toys and tricks are using to create the effect of the missiles the season for you know we use oh I'll lot of puppet work lead in electronics you know when ... every time somebody crushes it had four stops on a header smashes a bit more adding ... a little critical issues so the next move the valve opens and closes ... with little puppet things that we ... that we do for walkers as well as his home by settlement or so ... we're constantly try to keep the audience gets ... we always want them to think this is the figured out how we've done it ... then we throw them a little bit of a curveball ... from a technical point of view what's the hardest thing to get right for you what what has frustrated over the years that I wanna make sure that that book ... to anyone you know that ... the thirty third challenge ... because the way that we've decided they'll have custom ... dentures in the skin is ... peeled away so chances of a grinning skull look ... and that's really challenging to do it ... for me when I watched show ... that I see somebody with a pink so we see their teeth very clean ... the wheels going to reuse sleek black icing cake icing ... to die everybody's Mel's black and gray so that you don't see ... the light pink toe in the Matildas rides on the swing that's the level of the show we go to show ... how important obviously these creatures are real but you do you want out of naturalistic or realistic look about them and in this depiction ... of what sources do you go to try to figure out what these things might look like at this advanced age ... we don't want and I'm a affiliate ... I was present before God and special effects makeup so ... I did have a lot of experience with anatomy and biology when I was in college ... um ... so I can we try to make ourselves look anatomically correct to know ... that there's a scene where Daryl ... Dixon takes away from ... carbs open to walkers Chester New will open ... your Tennessee a ribcage and he is he's certainly this the organs ... you know we try to even have little layers of ... of ... November ... still the tissue in there to make it feel as realistic as possible so ... we got a pretty pretty great links with it even with the contact lenses and ... that sort of greyish cataracts looking highs ... um no that takes the humidity away from ... people so we look so when you can read their eyes look into the eyes but ... what the debt with the contract with thousands of these ... it sort of puts a little bit of adult lives with a barrier ... so you're struggling to find the humanity ... in their faces an effort to show does really well is that really makes you feel for these characters ... sometimes you see these walkers ... little girl Walker Sophia coming out of our in season two ... new you're able to so to motion towards some of them really challenge the speaking of reality how some viewers debate how long these things can actually ... act around but are devastated to cost the UK ... confirm that idea especially as the Cedars this show could go on indefinitely with a wee video Robert Kirkwood and I've talked about the fact that ... that this this ... play ... um slows down the composition ... so bodies don't decompose that the rate of normal body weight because ... once they're re animated and up and walking around on ... the rock much slower than normal body ... so ... we don't know how long the blast ... site races ... I love being a restaurant ... can somebody that facilities helps ... when you think the body would go before it rots and ... you know you have a couple next to you could do it ... the couple that I feel that ... um and you have directed previous episodes the show in the draft of the season we'll be seeing on Sunday ... how has that perspectives change the way you visualize or or or render these things ... these characters ... beyond the door ... well you know I had been drinking second unit for several years ... to get the opportunity to direct them to show the irony was the first episode ever directed ... there was one water it that that was the ups that were to open its ... so ... it was ... ironic that from a big effect creature back to ... I got one of the more dramatic episode ... so to me that was an exciting challenge ... so understanding ... the way to the vacant effects work ... I came back to the side effects sequences in my head pretty easily ... as I know what ... pieces of footage I need to ... know is a big effect sequence of the first half so that means the scene and a ... and it was a really challenging sequence that would of taken ... a normal with the company probably two weeks she will start today's ... historic order the entire they knew exactly which I was I needed ... to sell to sell that story ... so to me ... the the the facts are that it ... is second nature to me of a good ... thirty years ... I love the dramatic yes but ... I love working with the actors ... been collaborating with you in the Lincoln unknown reasons DVD of him and tell him and ... what they bring ... to the table because that's really ... the fun collaborative art ... so the premier of The Walking Dead Conte Sizemore Last with Halloween and I'm wondering did it take to the props on my ... and and peacemaker ... and although I am in the past yet we've put ... the go ahead and deleted but freight yard we had predators Liffe Radio heard ... from people come from all over to come to our front yard ... for the last Angeles for the last two years I've been directed ... on Halloween so I haven't had a chance to go home and ... and scare people in person ... really gets a skillet TPP ... so ... great tax returns for a very much ...